DUMANIS BACKS CLERK EVEN AFTER PROP. 8 FLAP

San Diego 
San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and Assessor/Recorder/Clerk Ernie Dronenberg are endorsing each other’s re-election bids despite conflicting approaches to same-sex marriage.

Dumanis is the nation’s first openly lesbian elected prosecutor and an opponent of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California until it was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

Dronenberg asked the state Supreme Court last year to clarify how the decision overturning Proposition 8 was to be implemented, a move he said was purely procedural.

But his action, taken without prior knowledge of the full county Board of Supervisors, drew fire from the LGBT community (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender), which widely interpreted it as an effort to avoid issuing marriage licenses. He eventually dropped the matter.

Republicans Dumanis and Dronenberg each face challengers in the June 3 primary.

One of the issues in Dumanis’ bid for a fourth term is that challengers are saying she has politicized the office, by running unsuccessfully for mayor herself and by issuing endorsements such as the one for Dronenberg.

Earlier this year, she said she would limit endorsements primarily to public safety races. On Thursday, she defended her support for Dronenberg.

“The assessor is a key member of the leadership team at the county, and an assessment on recording fees at his office helps fund the District Attorney’s real estate fraud prosecutions,” she said in a prepared statement to U-T San Diego. “I provided my endorsement of the assessor long before the filing of a petition with the state Supreme Court over same-sex marriage. At the time, I voiced my disappointment and concerns directly to Mr. Dronenberg, who assured me his actions were not anti-gay, but rather an attempt to clarify the law. As a member of the LGBT community, I continue to be a strong supporter of equality and same-sex marriage.”

Dumanis includes Dronenberg on her list of supporters. Dronenberg, who is in the last year of his first term, lists her first among the supporters of his re-election bid.

Dronenberg said he has supported Dumanis in all of her elections and that she understands his explanation that he was seeking clarity when he filed his writ last year.

At the time, he questioned whether county clerks could decide independently if marriage licenses should be issued, and whether same-sex marriage was only legal in Los Angeles and Alameda counties, home to the couples who challenged Proposition 8.

“Bonnie is an attorney, and she understands what I was asking for was clarification,” Dronenberg said. “So many people have branded me as anti-gay, and I have no record of being anti-gay.”

One of the people who stridently opposed Dronenberg’s move last year was Susan Jester, president of the Log Cabin Republicans of San Diego County. She said she has no problem with the two Republicans endorsing one another, but whether Dronenberg gets her group’s backing when it votes on endorsements next Tuesday is an open question.

“We will be taking into consideration his action last year. There will be a lot of discussion about it,” she said.

Dumanis is being challenged by attorneys Bob Brewer and Terri Wyatt. Dronenberg has three opponents, John A. Gordon, Susan Guinn and George W. Mantor. In both races, any candidate who gets more than 50 percent of the vote in June is elected, or a November runoff will be held between the top two finishers.